1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a camera and a computer program. The camera is such that it can record at least voice.
2) Description of the Related Art
The present day digital cameras can record voice and moving images in addition to still images. Almost all the cameras, including the digital cameras, are provided with a shutter button. In digital still cameras, the start and the end of the recording are controlled by operating the shutter button. Generally, the recording is started when the shutter button is pressed once and recording is stopped when the shutter button is pressed once more. In addition, the shutter button is normally coupled with a first switch which starts auto-focusing (AF) and auto-photometry (AE) and a second switch which starts the actual recording. An arrangement is made such that the first switch is turned on when even a weaker force is applied to the shutter button and the second switch is turned on with a force stronger than at which the first switch is turned on.
However, when the shutter button is pressed for recording the voice (or moving images), a mechanical sound produced due to the operation of the second switch disadvantageously gets recorded. Moreover, since the second switch can only be operated when the shutter button is pressed with stronger force, the camera gets a shake.
The problem that the mechanical sound gets recorded can be solved by deleting the data recoded at the end of the recording, when the recording is stopped. However, this technique requires a complicated processing to be performed. As thee data is generally recorded in an external recording medium, a control to read the data, delete and edit the data is required. If moving images are recorded along with the voice, then a control to read the corresponding images, delete or edit the images is also required.
A different technique to solve the problem of mechanical sound disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H8-293156 will be explained here. There are provided a voice collection unit that collects voice, a recording unit that records the voice, and a muffing unit that generates and superimposes a sound that cancels the mechanical sound on the voice collected. Thus, in this technique, the mechanical sound is deleted using a sound generated. However, this technique has a disadvantage that a means that generates the sound that cancels the mechanical sound is required. This increases the cost and also makes the configuration complicated.